Yesterday, the Senate passed a six-year transportation bill that increases spending on highways and transit but only provides three years of funding for that increase. As theWashington Postcommented, “only by Washington’s low standards could anyone confuse the Senate’s plan with ‘good government.’”

Meanwhile, House majority leader Kevin McCarthy says the House will ignore the Senate bill in favor of its own five-month extension to the existing transportation law. Since the existing law expires at the end of this week, the two houses are playing a game of chicken to see which one will swerve course first and approve the other house’s bill.

“I actually think I’m a pretty good president,” said Obama with a straight face, “I think if I ran, I could win.”

Needless to say, I and many others would quarrel with the first half of his statement. But I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the second half.

Say what you will about Obama. The man knows how to run a campaign at least when he is at the center of it. Sure he has a lot of help from a sympathetic and sycophantic media. But Obama and his team know the Alinsky playbook inside and out: pick your target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. They know how to make the other guy or gal (in the case of Hillary Clinton) the issue. And if that doesn’t work he can always make sure his opponents are disqualified from running.

A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, "Environmental Benefits from Driving Electric Vehicles?" shows the moniker ‘zero emission vehicle,’ attached to electric cars is misplaced. In a finding that may surprise some, Stephen Holland, of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and his coauthors discovered, depending upon one’s location, purchasing a zero emission car can reduce pollution locally, but nationally it tends to increase pollution overall.

In response to concerns about air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, federal and state governments have pushed the development and deployment of zero emission vehicles through a combination of federal and state subsidies and mandates.

The Federal Government provides a $7,500 subsidy for the purchase of each electric vehicle. Some states add to the federal subsidy with their own financial inducements. California, for instance, provides rebates and tax credits to purchasers of zero emission cars, truck and agricultural utility vehicles. Each year the state also requires an increasing percentage of car and truck manufacturers vehicles sold in the state to be zero emission.

Jon Stewart slipped unnoticed into the White House in the midst of the October 2011 budget fight, summoned to an Oval Office coffee with President Barack Obama that he jokingly told his escort felt like being called into the principal’s office.

In February 2014, Obama again requested Stewart make the trip from Manhattan to the White House, this time for a mid-morning visit hours before the president would go before television cameras to warn Russia that “there will be costs” if it made any further military intervention in Ukraine.

Now here’s a blockbuster deal. The Colorado Rockies have traded shortstop Troy Tulowitzki along with relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins to the Toronto Blue Jays for shortstop Jose Reyes and three minor league pitchers.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney supports reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, whose charter lapsed on June 30. She recently took to the Huffington Post to give 10 reasons to support Ex-Im. Here’s reason 1:

Exports play an important role in the U.S. economy, supporting nearly 12 million jobs in 2014.

Ex-Im did about $27.5 billion worth of business last year, amounting to about 1.2 percent of America’s $2.35 trillion in total 2014 exports, and less than one-sixth of one percent of America’s $17.7 trillion 2014 GDP. From this, Rep. Maloney concludes that Ex-Im supports nearly a tenth of the entire U.S. workforce!

I can understand from where Dermer and Katz are coming. Katz said to Huckabee in a Facebook post, “Dear Mr Huckabee, no one is marching Jews to the ovens anymore. That is why we established the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces, and if necessary, we will know how to defend ourselves by ourselves.”

A couple of trades today. Nothing blockbuster. But a couple of interesting moves.

The Oakland A's have traded their closer Tyler Clippard to the New York Mets for minor league pitcher Casey Meisner. The 30-year old Clippard saved 17 games for the A's this season. Originally a Yankee farmhand, Clippard has spent the bulk of his career with the Washington Nationals. In 2012, he saved 32 games for the NL East champs. In January, the Nats traded Clippard to Oakland for Yunel Escobar. Now Clippard is back in the NL East. Look for Clippard be the 8th inning set up man for Mets closer Jeurys Familia.

The Boston Red Sox have traded outfielder Shane Victorino to the Los Angeles Angels for infielder Josh Rutledge. Victorino is towards the end of his career and has been plagued by injuries the past couple of seasons. But he can be useful as a fourth outfielder and a right-handed hitter off the bench. His World Series rings with the Phillies in '08 and with the Red Sox in '13 can't be a bad thing for the Angels. I wonder if Bob Marley's "Don't Worry About a Thing" will still be his walkup music.

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